Local News

Brush Council donates, hears park feedback

Ten organizations from across Morgan County gathered on Monday, Feb. 25, to receive funds from the Brush City Council. (Kara Morgan / The Fort Morgan Times)

The Brush City Council began their meeting on Monday night with a flurry of donations, before hearing about the draft master parks and recreation plan from GreenPlay, LLC.

The donations began with a $1,000 contribution from the City to the Brush Community Cupboard, a food pantry in the Methodist Church basement in Brush.

Representatives from the food pantry said they are open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and serve an average of 25 to 35 clients per week, though they served 49 last week.

They thanked the City for the donations, financial support and the added credibility that comes along with the City government support.

Next, VFW Post No. 3551 Commander Eric Christensen accepted a $1,500 donation, saying the post has been saving up for an air conditioner and now will be able to purchase one for the building.

Christensen said this will make the space much more comfortable for summer use and allow them to open the space for community events in summer even more.

"There's no longer a need to just open the back door and fan in the flies," Christensen added, joking slightly.

Brush Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melody Christensen also received the $14,500 from the City to the chamber.

"We have a great working relationship with the City," Christensen said. "Thank you so much."

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Mayor Rick Bain agreed with Christensen and highlighted their joint efforts to put together a Christmas lights display in downtown Brush this year.

Randy Danielson, president of the Brush Rodeo Board, accepted a $2,000 donation on behalf of the Brush Rodeo Association. He thanked the City for their support to make the Brush rodeo an even more exciting event.

Director Laura McConnell of the East Morgan County Library District accepted a $1,000 donation. McConnell said the funds will go toward taking care of trees and landscape around the library.

McConnell said with 70,000 visitors last year, the trees and landscape are in need of maintenance each year.

Mayor Bain highlighted the library's community role. He said he went to their tree lighting for the first time this past year and was pleasantly surprised to see how many people came on the cold evening.

Executive Director Paula Bragg thanked the city for a donation for S.A.R.A., Inc.

S.A.R.A., Inc describes their work on their website: "SARA House is dedicated to the empowerment of sexual assault and domestic violence victims through direct victim services; community education that impacts deep-seated beliefs and behaviors; and the development of a coordinated community response to the crime of sexual assault and domestic violence."

"Every year we're growing," said Bragg, and thanked the City for their support. Bain added that in the community, "There's a very big need, unfortunately," for their services.

The Brush Centennial Manor accepted $1,000 from the City, as well. The representative from the center highlighted their regular activities, including the Meet-N-Eat, games, pool and bingo.

"We just welcome anybody," she added.

Shandra Jacobs, the new director of the United Way of Morgan County, accepted $250 on behalf of the organization. She highlighted some of their 19 partner agencies - including Rising Up; Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center; S.H.A.R.E.; and S.A.R.A., Inc. - that these funds would support.

Russ Kauk, a lead mentor of the Mecha-Maniacs 4-H Robotics Team, accepted $250 on behalf of the team. He thanked the Council for the support and said this will have an impact on their $16,500 total budget.

Kauk said the team is "providing an opportunity for students to get involved in STEM beyond public school." He said the team is preparing for an upcoming robotics competition at the University of Denver Ritchie Center from March 21-23, with six weeks of preparation to design and build a robot.

Finally, the Council presented funds to the Northeastern Colorado Association of Local Governments (NECALG) for their public transportation project. The representative said they make almost 9,000 trips in Brush alone per year. He thanked the City for their support and said they were also funded through federal, state and county support.

City Administrator Monty Torres said they go through a process to consider organizations each year to donate and encouraged organizations to submit funding requests by August of the previous year.

Draft Parks and Recreation Master Plan

Keri Konold, a certified park and recreation professional with GreenPlay, LLC, presented the Draft Parks and Rec Master Plan to the Council and audience. GreenPlay, working with Design Concepts and RRC Associates, evaluated the parks and facilities and surveyed residents as part of the process to create a Brush Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

Konold began by saying she was grateful to witness the donation process at the Monday meeting.

"I'm so honored to be here tonight," Konold added.

After months of getting to know Brush and its support systems through their research, she said it was wonderful to "see it in action."

Konold explained that she was generally presenting the themes and objectives within the master plan, not necessarily specific actions to take. Konold said they were looking for feedback from the Council on anything that really stood out to them.

Konold broke the presentation down into their five focus themes: organizational, marketing and administrative opportunities; delivery of programs and services; facility and amenities; level of service to the County and financial sustainability.

Before diving into the five themes, Konold said that from October to February, they went from information gathering and distributing surveys to compiling their findings into a public presentation in January to the draft plan today. She said the final plan should be completed by sometime in March.

Brush Parks Director Lance Schwindt said this process has been the "ultimate job appraisal" and he was grateful for GreenPlay and their partner's efforts to highlight and research issues they were aware of and others that needed reminding.

With each focus area, Konold presented challenges and objectives. For organizational, marketing and administrative opportunities, Konold lauded the Council's support of the parks and recreation department and highlighted some needs for increased communication and awareness for events and facilities.

In a list of objectives, Konold said there was room to grow in organization efficiencies, marketing and 'succession planning,' for when there's turnover in staff.

The second focus was programs and service delivery. Konold said they heard about the strength of youth programs in Brush, along with a need to expand beyond sports programs. She also highlighted the need for increased accessibility within Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Konold said they also heard from residents the need for after-school activities and child care. Though she noted that this is not necessarily the role of the parks and recreation department, it was important to note the feedback they heard.

She said, too, they heard about another area not always considered a parks and recreation focus: 'preserving agriculture lands and rural character.' Konold said they heard a lot of feedback that this was an important value for the community and that it could be incorporated into a parks and recreation objectives.

Along with this, Konold listed increasing accessibility and diversifying programs to meet more needs of the community as potential objectives for the department.

Under facilities and amenities, Konold highlighted the care of the community for and the need for improvement of the Memorial Park Swimming Pool. She said they heard a lot about the potential of the golf course clubhouse as a community space.

Konold said they also heard feedback about expanding or updating trails connections throughout Brush and the need for a recreation center.

"People want to get around safely," Konold added.

For the objectives of the parks and rec facilities and amenities, Konold pinpointed maintaining and improving existing facilities and promoting economic development by drawing people to the city center.

Konold next addressed the level of service. She discussed the accessibility within their facilities, saying they found that about 70 percent of the City has walkable access to a park space, but 15 percent have none at all.

Konold said their objective for service would be to provide facilities that promote the character of Brush and economic goals of the City.

Konold's final section focused on finances. Konold said they found Brush had a comparably low cost of event and recreation fees, but highlighted that any changes would need to be driven by community discussion and decisions.

She proposed the objective for Brush to "establish a pathway for financial sustainability."

Once Konold opened up the room for discussion, City Administrator Monty Torres asked her to highlight the feedback from the community that stood out the most.

Konold said the top three would be trail connections, maintenance of the Memorial Park and pool and expanded athletic fields or recreation/gym space. She said the fourth would be expanded programming.

Mayor Rick Bain added, "I liked seeing our parks scored well."

As Konold highlighted in a previous presentation, as well, their research found that the Brush parks systems scored well in their national database of park evaluations.

Konold concluded her presentation saying she was "excited" for Brush and its potential moving forward.

"You have a great community that's really supportive, and it was great to see you all [to Council] are supportive of it too."

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